With its low budget and
lush black-and-white imagery, Gus Van Sant's debut feature Mala Noche
heralded an idiosyncratic, provocative new voice in American independent film.
Set in Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Oregon, the film evokes a world of
transient workers, dead-end day-shifters, and bars and seedy apartments bathed
in a profound nighttime, as it follows a romantic deadbeat with a wayward crush
on a handsome Mexican immigrant. Mala Noche was an important prelude to
the New Queer Cinema of the nineties and is a fascinating time capsule from a
time and place that continues to haunt its director's work.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The
Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio

English (Dolby Digital 1.0)

Subtitles

English,
None

Features

Release Information:Studio: Criterion

Aspect Ratio:Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• Gus
Van Sant interview (24:53)

• Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck
Poet: a documentary about the author of the book Mala Noche,
directed by animator and friend Bill Plympton (1:03:16)• Storyboard gallery • Original trailer edited
by Van Sant (1:30)• Liner notes with new
essay by film critic Dennis Lim

DVD Release Date: October 9th, 2007Transparent Keep Case
Chapters: 22

Comments:

This dual-layered
Criterion DVD is pictureboxed transferred (see our full description of 'pictureboxing'
in our
Kind Hearts and Coronets review).
It is coded for Region 1 in the NTSC standard. The transfer is
progressive and in the original 1.33 aspect ratio. The audio is original
English mono and there are optional English subtitles. NOTE: burned-in
subs exist for infrequent non-English dialogue (Mexican-Spanish) - see
example below.

Considering the economical appearing roots (made on
16mm for an incredible $25,000) of the film production the image quality
(restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by
director Gus Van Sant) is excellent. the restoration process may have boosted the black levels
to some degree but overall it maintains its grittiness and detail is
wonderfully sharp.

Supplements include a 25 minute interview with Gus Van Sant (I can't
recall seeing him interviewed before). It is very laid back and the
director talks of his roots- he's an intriguing and 'grass-roots'. The
BIG supplements is the hour long 'Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck Poet'
- it is a documentary about the author of the book Mala Noche,
directed by animator and friend Bill Plympton. It is quite unusual and
very 'indie' - I didn't particularly enjoy watching this but appreciate
what their intent was - some may find it kind of cool. Then there is a
storyboard gallery which amounts to some fluff in my opinion and the
original trailer edited by Van Sant running a minute and a half.
Finally, there are some good liner notes (14 pages with black and white
photos) with new essay by film critic Dennis Lim.

NOTE: There appears
to be an error on the part of Criterion - from their blog HERE
'It's been one of those weeks. First we learned we'd made a mastering
error on our Mala Noche edition. Mala Noche is mostly in black and
white, but about twenty-three minutes in, there are three color shots
that total ten seconds and twenty-two frames. In our version, they
appear black and white. No one caught it. '

Criterion will replace
this disc if you are so inclined: "Please don't send the whole package,
just the Mala Noche
disc in an envelope. Send your disc to the Criterion Collection, 215
Park Avenue South, New York, NY, 10003, and mark it "Attn: Jon Mulvaney."'

'Unique' might be the operative word. It's shot in a
kind of modern film-noir evocation although no real homage is
present. I think Mala Noche may be a film that grows fonder with
age. I only just watched it so I may warm further in the future. It's
surprisingly a lot to take in - morose- humorous - comparisons to
Stranger Than Paradise are appropriate. Yeah - worth seeing for
sure.